Conventionally, petroleum is used as a raw material of most plastics. In recent years, however, there is a concern regarding petroleum depletion and CO2 generated on combustion of petroleum is a cause of global warming. Under the circumstances, chemicals derived from biomass that are referred to as carbon neutral recently attract attention as a substitute of petroleum.
Meanwhile, a methacrylic resin as a kind of plastics has an excellent characteristic such as transparency or weather resistance, and thus it is used for various applications. As a method for producing methacrolein or methacrylic acid, which is a raw material for methyl methacrylate as a raw material of a methacrylic resin, there is a catalytic gas phase oxidation method which uses t-butanol or isobutylene as a raw material.
Further, various methods for producing a raw material of a methacrylic resin have been conventionally known. For example, in Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2, a method for producing t-butanol (tertiary butanol) from butenes is described. Further, in Patent Literature 3, a method for producing methacrolein from t-butanol is known. Further, in Patent Literature 4, a method for producing methacrolein and methacrylic acid from isobutylene is described. In Non-Patent Literature 1, a method for synthesizing isobutylene from isobutanol is described. Further, in Patent Literature 5, a method for producing methacrolein and methacrylic acid from isobutanol is described.